Who is Responsible for Damage to Utilities during Geotechnical Drilling ?

[Geotech_Pavement]

Hello

We are a geotechnical firm in southern california (orange county) and as you know many times we work for an A/E firm that hires us. I have a question regarding the standard procedures for utility clearance for geotechnical and environmental drilling.

We usually place the two statement below in our proposals:

Marking Boring Locations and Underground Utility Clearance: We will mark boring locations and notify you and Underground Service Alert (USA) prior to beginning fieldwork so that public or private underground utilities can be identified. For the purpose of this agreement, it is the responsibility of utility owners to mark their utilities. We are not responsible for utilities not properly marked at the ground surface.

Private Utility Locator: As mentioned in the City scope of work provided to 'geotech firm xx', we will subcontract with a private utility locator to perform Ground Penetrating Radar (GPR) for utility clearance. As noted above, we will contact USA prior to beginning fieldwork so that any public utilities in the area of our exploratory borings will be marked. We are not responsible for
damage to underground structures.
They
So our client (the A/E firm) is not happy with the statement in our proposal stating "We are not responsible for damage to underground structures” , Our client says geotech firm/contractor is responsible to repair/replace any damage to underground structures caused by drilling and no cost to A/E firm or City.

Is there any standard/legal language in the industry that defines liabilities for a geotechnical firm with respect to possibility of damaging a utility line even if they follow/comply with all the standard procedures normally used in our industry for utility clearance?

Thanks

 

[dik]

Did you call for a locate prior to drilling? If not, I would suggest the driller was.

Rather than think climate change and the corona virus as science, think of it as the wrath of God. Do you feel any better?

-Dik

 

[GeoEnvGuy]

The driller who drills the hole in the location determined by the engineer which reviewed locates and has clearance for all there drilling locations has done there due diligence. The responsibility to fix lines that were not identified is with the utility owner that was contacted to identify there lines.

For public utilities there is usually a service which reaches out to all the public utilities to locate there buried utilities within a reasonable timeframe. For private lines it is upto the private utility owner to identify these lines. If the property owner has no clue if they have private utilities and refuses to clear locations then I cannot direct my staff to drill. I am not interested in hiring geophysics to look for something that may or may not be there and will offer no guarantee, the owner can take that risk. The owner can also get a hydrovac to take out the top 5 feet and I will put qualifiers on the report to state the material strength for the top 5 feet is unavailable.

 

[geotechguy1]

Harsh truth: When large A/E firms hire smaller consulting firms they are doing it to transfer high risk / liability low profit work out of their business, be it the risk of drilling a hole through a pipe or the risk associated with geotechnical engineer in general. Unfortunately you can't avoid this in some markets but if you can, I'd suggest only doing work for larger consulting firms if the owner of your company or you have a good relationship with staff at that firm so you can talk your way out of these issues.

 

[geotechguy1]

Also worth pointing out that in some areas even where public utilities have to locate services they still transfer all liability to the companies doing the drilling / excavation etc. It's very frustrating. In Alberta we would on the one hand be fighting with a local government or utility over responsiblity for damager to their service, and at the same time doing projects with them where on a multi-million dollar utility installation job they refused to pay small amounts of money to add tracer wire "because it's easier to just transfer the risk to people doing the work".

 

[MTNClimber]

I would say that is roughly the standard language. Here's ours:

[GEOTECHNICAL ENGINEERING FIRM] cannot be responsible for damage or repair to underground utilities unknown to us prior to the start of the subsurface exploration program. [GEOTECHNICAL ENGINEERING FIRM] has not included costs for obtaining a private utility mark out or vacuum pre-excavation subcontractor to avoid utility damage in this proposal. We can add these services if there is uncertainty in the utility locations.

I would not accept liability for other people's mistake. As long as you notified them the minimum days required prior to start of work, it is their duty to mark them prior to your borings. It's also not the A/E's responsibility either so I don't know what they are making it a big deal. I would tell them to go find someone else to take that bad deal.

 

[TigerGuy]

I've hit more unmarked utilities during exploration than I care to count. In every case, I had called in the necessary locate, as well as the driller or excavation contractor.

Only once did we provide the repair, to a sewer connection to a duplex. It was faster than calling anybody, the excavation crew bought the materials and spliced the line.

Each state has its own rules. Some require the exploration team to "pothole" the utilities for positive location, prior to performing exploration. Anybody want to see their client's head explode for that extra charge?

 

[darthsoilsguy2]

I've worked at 6 different geotech firms in the NC, VA, SC area of the USA. I don't know for sure, but i would bet we worked directly for the Owner at least 75% of the time. A/E's that don't like terms & conditions shouldn't hire subs.

One thing that isn't known as well as it should is that utility markings have tolerances. As in if you have a utility marked, there is X-ft on either side of the paint mark that you have to stay away from the utility. The paint marks only the CENTERLINE of the utility zone. The whole zone counts as marked. In order to know the offset, you have to read the fine print of the utility marking service involved. It's one thing to hit an unknown utility, it's a totally different thing to hit a utility that was legally marked but the no-dig zone wasn't understood because nobody read the fine print, or the digger understood the zone and dug anyway.

 

[TigerGuy]

Darth,

Excellent reminders. The worst I hit was a 50 psi gas line. The line was not marked, and it had been bored beneath a parking lot, so there wasn't even the pavement patch to indicate something was there. The gas company representative said the line had only been pressurized for a few days, and the paperwork would not reach the locators for a few months.

 

[darthsoilsguy2]

Hi geotechguy1,

Harsh truth: When large A/E firms hire smaller consulting firms they are doing it to transfer high risk / liability low profit work out of their business, be it the risk of drilling a hole through a pipe or the risk associated with geotechnical engineer in general.

I've worked for 3 different Large A/E firms and I agree with what you say... but with some more nuance. I often found myself being the person at the Big A/E hiring smaller firms who would sign our sub-agreement and I've found myself also working for smaller clients who would sign our terms.... I've also had many times where I've been given marching orders to get people to sign our terms or cut ties.... When you work for a big company, it's not only that there are major roadblocks against working with 'their' contracts but there are also risks of being professionally ridiculed internally for wasting time on such endeavors and your 'management skills' are questioned. On the other side of the coin..... if an Engineer with a big A/E company actually lands an opportunity to work with a big new client that somehow perks the ears of corporate who takes interest in really contracting with them.... you still don't really win because you find yourself in the middle of their contract negotiation racking up lots of unbillable time..... (fast-forward.... working for myself now)